Broaden Your Diet With Meatless Mondays

A new community potluck is offering vegetarian options to students, faculty and staff.

Next Monday, students and staff from the Nicholas School of the Environment will host a second "Meatless Monday" potluck featuring a variety of vegetarian and vegan foods, and you're invited to participate. 

The second Meatless Monday potluck is noon to 1 p.m. July 11 in Room A148 in the Levine Science Research Center. The first event, held June 13, featured about a dozen students and staff members sharing foods like salad, manicotti, carrot cake and barbecue seitan - a wheat-based meat-like food.

Leslie Pardue, program coordinator for professional studies in the Nicholas School's Office of Academic and Enrollment Services, said that she decided to organize the monthly potluck lunches to be part of Triangle Meatless Mondays, a local movement that works with restaurants to offer special vegetarian meals every week. 

"We hope our second potluck will draw even more folks and will help inspire others at Duke to organize similar events because it would be great to have Meatless Monday events all over campus," Pardue said. "This is an easy and fun way for Dukies to reduce their environmental impact."

By cutting out meat, Duke employees can lower their carbon footprint, Pardue said. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that cutting out meat for one meal a week over the course of a year can cut down an individual's carbon footprint by about 300 tons. Potluck participants are encouraged to bring their own reusable plate and utensils to further minimize any environmental impact of the meal.

For more information or for help organizing a Meatless Monday event for your department, e-mail Leslie Pardue.